Process of making alloys of iron and hydrogen.



(No Modelf:

WITNESSES Patented Mar. 26, l90l. G. W. GESNER.

PROCESS OF MAKING ALLOYS OF IRON AND HYDROGEN.

-(Application filed Dec. 15, 1899.)

. wsxm m ml nomus Perms co, momurnoi, wxsmncrcm. n. c.

UNirn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE WELTDEN GESNER, OF BROOKLYN, NEl/V YORK, ASSIGNOR TO IIARLESTONCORBETT GESNER, OF SAME PLACE.

PROCESS OF MAKING ALLOYS OF IRON AND HYDROGEN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 670,775, dated March26, 1901.

Application filed December 15, 1899- T0 at whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, Gnonen WELTDEN Gas- NER, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and a resident of the borough of Brooklyn, in the city and Stateof New York, have invented an Improved Process of Making an Alloy ofIron and Hydrogen, of which the following is a specification.

The improvement is based on that set forth in an application for UnitedStates Patent by me filed March 10, 1896, Serial No. 582,600. Thatapplication described the product of a valuable alloy of iron andhydrogen in the form of scales or flakes adhering slightly to thesurface of the remainder of the iron. The theory of that case is thatthe absorption of the hydrogen by the iron is in somethinglike definiteproportions and commences at the surface and proceeds inward, therebeing as this work progressesalwaysa limit where the relatively softlayers of flakes terminate and the unalloyed iron is met. I havediscovered that through absence of a sharply-defined boundary or othercause some or all the flakes are liable to take away and retain with thealloy iron unalloyed or only partially alloyed. This invention providesfor the further treatment of the flakes to reduce the whole to thedesired com pletelyalloyed condition. My experiments indicate that thecompletely-alloyed iron is in this mode of the manufacture and at thisstage of the treatment far more friable than the iron which is lessthoroughly alloyed. I crush or grind all the material which is in thefully-friable condition and leave unafiected or less perfectlypulverized the iron which remains unalloyed or less completely alloyed.Then by simply screening the powder is allowed to fall into a suitablebin for subsequent melting or forging, and the tougher material arrestedby the screen, in the form of plates or strings of various irregularforms, according to kind and severity of the grinding treatment, is keptout and may be thrown away or be subject to further treatment, as shallbe found expedient.

The accompanying drawings form a part of this specification andrepresent good means of carrying out the invention.

Figure 1 is a vertical section showing a quantity of the flakes as theycome from the iron.

Serial No. 740,415. (No specimens.)

Fig. 2 is on a larger scale. It shows a similar section through one ofthe flakes alone. The hatching or section shading shows the main bodyperfectly alloyed and pulverizable, but one face, the lower face, asshown, imperfectly alloyed; and Fig. 3 is on the same scale as Fig. 1.It is a vertical section of the meeting surfaces of two crushing andgrinding rolls with the flakes being passed down between and crushed;and Fig. 4C is a vertical section through a portion of the screen withthe crushed stock being treated thereby.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in all the figureswhere they appear.

A indicates the unalloyed iron which remains after the scale isdetached.

B is the completely-alloyed iron in the relatively soft and friablecondition which it assumes during the formation of the flakes, and Aindicates a thin and usually irregular stratum of unalloyed orimperfectly-alloyed iron which comes off with the scale or flake when itis detached from the mass of metal within the furnace. The unalloyediron A remains as a part of the flakes B. The process down to this stagemay be in all respects the same as is set forth in a patent alreadyissued to me as a division of my previous application above referred to,such division being dated January 30, 1900, No. 640,320, and may bevaried in many ways so long as the flakes or analogous weak condition ofthe alloy is temporarily induced, with a liability to hold more or lessunalloyed, and consequently tougher, iron mingled therewith. I take thismingled material in any regular or irregular forms, which for brevity Iwill term flakes and which for convenience I have represented by nearlyuniform thin and slightly bent pieces, and subject the whole to acrushing action between two rolls 0 D, driven in opposite directions bypowerful machinery, one working faster than the other, so as to mingle agrinding with a directly-compressing effect. The rolls should have meansnot only for revolving and for holding them strongly against separation,but should also have means for adjusting their extent of separation,which may be similar to the provisions in the treatment of wheat inroller-milling. The rolls are grooved longitudinally to assure a betterhold on the flakes and compel their passage down through the narrowspace to be disintegrated. The material'thus preparedis next screened bytreatment in a revolving or othmeshes of the screen and is collectedbeloW' to be subsequently melted and poured to form castings of my purealloy, or this powder may be rolled or forged, or both, at a weldingheat to form sheets or forgings of my pure alloy. The coarser material,which is arrested by the screen and is removed either constantly or atintervals as tailings, is composed mainly or entirely ofpartially-alloyed iron and may be utilized by being again heated andexposed to hydrogen or may be melted to form articles in which onlyalower percentage of hydrogen than the full proper alloy may suffice.This material mayin some cases be rejected as Waste.

Modifications may be made without departing from the principle orsacrificing the advantages of the invention. The reduction of the scalesto powder and to strings, according to its degree of absorption of thehydrogen, may be effected by other forms of grinding and crushingapparatus than the rolls. Other forms of partially-alloyed iron than thescales shown may be treated. If we cause hydrogen gas to rise throughmelted iron, it is liable to be irregularly absorbed, so that while someportions form the full alloy in a friable condition other portions formthe alloy in a tough condition, or are not alloyed sufficiently to betaken out of the original strong and tough condition of unalloyed iron;or the alloy may be made without uniformity by sending up hydrogenirregularly in the reduction of iron from ore in a blast-furnace orother apparatus. Such heterogeneous material, however made, may beground by any efficient apparatus, as a stamping-mill, and the friableportions similarly separated in the form of powder by screening andseparately melted or welded together to form the desired alloy, allowingthe tougher material arrested by the screen to be differently treated.

I claim as my invention- 1. The within-described process of securing athoroughly-alloyed product of iron and hydrogen, the same consisting insubjecting heated iron to the action of hydrogen gas to produce an alloyof iron and, hydrogen, subjecting such alloy to mechanical reduction andseparating the unalloyed metal particles from the finely-pulverizedalloy element, substantially as herein specified.

.2. The within-described process of securing a thoroughly-alloyedproduct of iron and hydrogen, the same consisting in subjecting extendedsurfaces of heated iron to hydrogen gas to produce an alloy in the formof scales,

removing the latter and mechanically'reducr' ing them to detach thealloyed from the un alloyed portions-subjecting the material to ascreening operation to remove the unal loyed metal, and fusing thealloyed powder to convert it to homogeneous form, substantially asherein specified.

In testimony that I claim the invention above set forth I affix mysignature in the presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE WELTDEN GESNER.

Witnesses:

WM. H. MOGRANN, M. ODoNNoGHUE.

